Kategoria

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A division or class to which items or concepts are assigned based on shared characteristics ; a means of organizing information or objects into groups for easier identification and study ; a label used to group entities by common traits or criteria
2. A grouping method that classifies things according to similar features ; an organizational tool that helps sort elements into defined sets ; a system for distinguishing items by particular qualities or attributes
3. A grouping based on shared attributes used to organize items or ideas ; a concept in sorting entities into various types or classes ; a way to segment information into distinct groups for clarity and analysis

Etymology: "Kategoria" is the Greek ancestor of the English word, and its original sense was legal and rhetorical rather than organizational. In ancient Greek, "katēgoria" meant an accusation or charge, from "katēgorein," to accuse or speak against someone in public. Its later meanings, a predication or attribute in Aristotle's logic and then a class of things, grew out of that sense of formally stating what something is. English took the word directly from Latin "catēgoria," so it is a learned borrowing rather than a word that came through everyday speech. It sits alongside "category" as a doublet: the two come from the same source but entered English by different routes, with "category" the more familiar form. The Greek-to-Latin-to-English path left the Latin form, with its k spelling, as the one used in technical and philosophical writing.

Synonyms: category, accusation